| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Joe D'Amato
Starring: Laura Gemser,
Gabriele Tinti, Roger Browne, Riccardo Salvino
Screenplay: Ottavio
Alessi, Maria Pia Fusco, Piero Vivarelli
Music: Nico Fidenco
Country: Italy
AKA: Emanuelle Nera
in America |
Laura Gemser stars as Emanuelle, a fashion
photographer and New York reporter who travels
around the world on 'journalistic'
assignments armed with a tiny camera pendant she
wears around her neck that has an endless supply
of film. She goes undercover as "Virgo'
in millionaire Eric Van Darren's harem of
women named after signs of the zodiac; makes love
to a women in a sauna; enjoys a steamy underwater
encounter with other zodiac women in the pool,
and discovers a cache of illegal arms. We are
then treated (as such!) to the first hardcore
scene of the film: a woman masturbating a horse!
Then it is off to Italy to attend a function
of the rich elite. A lucky senior Senator discovers
the golden peanut in his desert and wins the naked
girl in a cake, cueing everyone present to immediately
discard their clothing and get involved in a group
orgy! Hardcore scenes during this are a terrible
(and very brief) fellatio scene and an extremely
bored looking woman sitting on a chair masturbating.
At this mansion Emanuelle discovers a room full
of stolen artwork and is busted by the lord of
the manor (the late Gabrielle Tinti - Laura Gemser's
real life husband) who involves her in a threesome
with his wife.
A subplot to the film involves Emanuelle and
her boyfriend discussing how their busy lives
leave little time for them to see each other (i.e.
have sex). Long, unnecessary scenes show them
sightseeing in Venice to give the film a more
international flavour but could easily be edited
out without affecting the storyline at all.
Then it is off to a tropical island where rich
women choose muscle men of their liking and two
more hardcore scenes: a 'Tarzan and Jane'
scene in a hut then a lovely blonde woman who
enjoys a 'chocolate and vanilla' threesome
with a black and white guy. Both sex scenes culminate
in cum shots.
Then she stumbles across a couple making out while
watching a Super 8mm snuff film. This notorious
footage is the major draw card for many who have
heard about Emanuelle in America.
Director D'Amato has created incredibly
realistic snuff movie footage complete with faded,
grainy colours and scratches. The misogynistic
scenes show women terrorised by uniformed South
American 'revolutionaries' with a
blowtorch; branded with an iron; fucked from behind
with a horst bit in the mouth; throttled while
being gang raped, placed on stretching racks, and lowered onto a huge spiked phallic
cone (among other things). One lady also has both
her nipples cut off. (In the special features
on the disc D'Amato explains how he and
forty crew members were sued by this women later
for 'mental anguish', had his passport
confiscated for five years and couldn't
leave Italy until he finally paid her off for
the 'trauma' these scenes caused her).
Following this new lead Emanuelle goes to Washington
and hooks up with a Senator who has a very stylish
70's bedroom/Super 8mm projection set up
and he shows her more of the same snuff footage.
".. that footage, it was all so awful!
But what a turn on!" Emanuelle says,
"It's the raw horror of it that
excites me". She is then drugged with
powdered LSD and flown to where the movies are
made. Sounds like a fun way to have an acid trip
doesn't it?
On a technical and photographic level, this
short film within a film is extremely realistic.
As a lover of "snuff cinema verite"
I am yet to see snuff footage from any film that
matches this. The ending of the film is somewhat
cheesy and anti-climactic, but after seeing such
brilliant snuff footage who cares? All dialogue
is not dubbed very well but lovers of Italian
films will not be surprised by this and it won't
detract from their viewing experience. The fashion
is wonderful mid-seventies fare: flares, wide
hats, knee high coloured socks and white suits.
Sets and props also reflect 1970's trend
art design of the time: a sliding door that is
a painting of naked woman; a huge painting of
a topless woman holding Hugh Hefner's head
on a platter; sliced fruit that resembles female
genitalia, and a Pop-art style Marlborough cigarette
packet coffee table / drinks cabinet.
The music on the main menu is fantastic, classic
'orchestral porn' with sweeping wind
instruments, keyboards and vocal back up which
works well in Dolby Digital. I found myself leaving
the main menu playing repeatedly just to hear
it. The songs in the film by Nico Fidenco (the
group credited as Armonium) are catchy and stand
alone in their glam-rock style. If they were to
release a soundtrack to this film it would stand
out on its own. |
